This is another puzzle that has been sitting around for a while waiting to find a place in the queue. Heck I had to remember how to solve it as I was trying to get it ready to go.
I doubt they will remember it, but KayW and lbray53 helped me test and refine this one. Of course they may just pull a Mission Impossible on me, "As always, should you or any of this meta be wrong or crunchy, the test solvers will disavow any knowledge..."
Difficulty? Hmmm...I'm going to say Calico to Persian because you will have to see the "trick" to solve. Of course once you do it is pretty straightforward, but noticing what I'm up to might be a challenge for some depending on your levels of experience with the subject. Still, this is nothing that is way out in left field so I expect most will find their way.
Kitten
֎ Calico
֎ Persian
Puma
Lion
I will try to remember to post nudges this week, hopefully I can keep my mind in the game.
I must be losing it....I could have SWORN I posted the nudges here on the same day I did them for the Muggles forum, but if I did I must not have saved my work because they sure are not here, my apologies:
NUDGES:
Nudge 1] The title was selected carefully because 8 millimeter is the size of movie film (or at least it was).
Nudge 2] The theme answers are symmetrical.
Nudge 3] Are there any possible movie titles among the themer answers?
Nudge 4] What do all those movies in the theme answers have in common?
Nudge 5] The title was also the name of a movie which, not be chance, shares the same trait as the themers
EXTRA NUDGE!!!!
Nudge 6] The meta answer is 7 letters long and there are 7 theme answers, now if only you could get a letter from each, or at least a square number containing a letter!
THE REVEAL:
The intended path was to notice that there were 7 symmetrically placed movies with clues hinting to their full titles.
Helping that a bit was both the title of the Meta, "8 Millimeter" a "numbered film as well as the size of the movie film of old and the graphic that showed the little Michelin Man-like figure holding film cans, many of which had films with numbers in their titles.
15 Measure from the beginning of time - what would that be but Year 1.
28 German holding (or perhaps Holden) area - William Holden's only Oscar was for Stalag 17
30 Candles on a birthday cake - maybe 16 of them in a popular movie
35 Reed Richard - certainly Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four a Marvel franchise
48 Primates in many Sci-Fi films - certainly there have been LOTS of monkeys (King Kong, Planet of the Apes, etc.) but few weirder than 12 Monkeys
51 Name for a group of friends in Mexico - who can forget those three zany friends, the Three Amigos
65 Measurement on the road - this was probably harder to see than others, and part of that is that I lived in Detroit for a while and 8 Mile was pretty much the boundary between the Urban core and the wealthier suburbs. Perhaps I should have made the clue Measurement on the road in Michigan, but alas...
If you take those numbers, each of them designates a square in the puzzle, and those numbers, in their numerical order, spell NUMBERS, a concern for producers.
For a graphic of the intended solve, please go to: